I like the look of that, although I am not convinced on 2 x 10 gearing for MTB's, unless you are planning on riding fairly flat trails. Much as I dislike 3x gearing on road bikes, off road you really do need it. (OK, I really do need it!)

Duallies with the shock slung beneath the top tube strike me as a better design than using a pivot (bell crank) to move the suspension travel through 110 degrees or so and a vertical shock parallel to the down tube. The design looks simpler and keeps the shock up out of the crud.

Both my recumbents have 3 x 10 and I use the full range, high cadence all the time.....that way it takes the strain off my knees and so far I haven't found a road I couldn't climb.....I have recumbent cycled up Mount Buffalo....

I imagine 3 x 10 is probably essential for anything with some degree of gradient !

Are the Avanti Vapour bikes any good, again they have pretty decent spec chainsets etc....

Whether 2x10 is "fantastic" depends on the rider and the terrain. In my view it's just marketing BS driven by SRAM trying to create a *perceived* point of difference in the market to Shimano.

I can climb faster than a lot of my mates, but I do so at a high cadence. 2x10 sucks as far as I'm concerned - not low enough. Further, there's a big jump between big and little chainring. I've found that when you want to go to the little ring, rather than being just one down/one up (front/rear) to get the next easiest ratio, it's one down/three up, sometimes more when you want to jump a couple of ratios. You have to work a lot harder to find the right gear in my opinion.

Sure, it's where the market is going for now, but give it a few years and 3x10 will be rediscovered for the general population once the infatuation with what the pros with legs like tree trunks are doing wears off and a sense of practicality returns.

OK: Bikes. 100-120mm travel is good for most stuff. 120mm gives you the flexibility to do more techy trail stuff if you want wthout being a pig to pedal if you want to have a crack at teh occasional 50 or 100km enduro. 29ers are worth a look, too. Some nice 120mm front 100mm rear models coming out now

I was leaning towards a 2x10 for the upgrade to my Trance. I don't use the granny much so the loss of weight seemed like a good thing. Ten minutes aboard a 2x10 Anthem convinced me otherwise. Walking a hill I know I can clean with a granny sucked bad. Not a grinder, me.

...whatever the road rules, self-preservation is the absolute priority for a cyclist when mixing it with motorised traffic.London Boy 29/12/2011

My choice was between a Scott Spark 40 and a Giant Anthem. I took the Giant for a short ride, but it plainly and simply didn't talk to me, didn't give the sweaty palms 'must have it' sensation. I have nothing negative to say about the bike, it just didn't tickle my ticklish bits.

I've been very happy with my Scott...even though circumstances have meant that I haven't ridden it for over a year.

But soon my Precious...soon!

Getting back to the question: the right back to buy is always the one that talks to you. The bike that you like is the bike that you will ride.

We went down into the Otway National Park today, very tight and twisty, lots of drop offs and jumps, some steep loose climbs (18% was the steepest), and a nasty off camber side slope which I was not very happy with......

I have a lot to learn......already messed with the fork and rear shock pressures and really improved things.....what's the go with rebound ? Any recommendations ?

The objective with rebound is to ensure the unit extends fast enough to avoid packing under multiple quick hits and slow enough so the extension doesn't make the wheel too light. Gareth suggested an initial setup in the shop with the rear two clicks slower than mid range and the front one click faster. He then suggested I take her to a stretch of track I knew well and ride it multiple times while keeping a log of changes and impressions. After about two dozen runs I wound up with the rear at four slower and the front at two slower. I'm sure there's more scientific methods but it feels about right for my style of white knuckled slowness.

...whatever the road rules, self-preservation is the absolute priority for a cyclist when mixing it with motorised traffic.London Boy 29/12/2011

I dropped the air pressure by 20 psi in the front forks and that made the them a bit softer with about 25% static sag, same for the rear,that made a big difference, much more compliant and took the harshness out....

Currently there is more rebound on the back shock.... I think I'll need to do some optimising

It depends though on what you're using it for and the terrain. I run 20% on my 100mm travel 26er hardtail when I'm racing so that it pedals more efficiently. That made a big difference, at the price of being noticeably harsher. The guy at AvantiPlus Narrabeen scoffed when I mentioned it to a customer, and said 15% was the go for XC. Erm, I value my wrists. Between 20 and 25% on the 130mm travel dually, depending on whether I'm racing or riding techy stuff.

Some downhillers run 35-40% sag, but then they have 200mm+ to play with.

Regarding rebound, I don't run a whole lot on the front, and tend to run quite a bit on the back. I got the idea from UK downhill-focussed publication Dirt Magaizine's Fundamentals video. The had a really good section on suspension setup from the UK RockShox guy.

It's better to err on the fast side on the front and the slow side on the back. The idea is to stop the front from packing down from successive hits and the back from kicking you in the butt, sending you over the bars and off to hospital. Hasn't stopped me going over the bars but that's been from pilot error, not from suspension setup.

The only exception (near exception) was when I swapped bikes with a mate who runs less rebound and almost over-rotated forwards in the air off the first waterbar on a fast downhill fire trail .... was frigging close. I was ready the second time and made sure I thrust the bike out hard in front of me during the pop. I don't get as much air on my own bike, but it's a lot more forgiving.

Last edited by trailgumby on Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Give it six weeks or so of regular riding, and if it's still uncomfortable it might be worth visiting a Specialized Body Geometry dealer, sitting on their Ass-O-Meter, and buying a saddle of the appropriate width.

In the meantime, it's OK to stand up out of the saddle as needed to give your butt a break. I do.

I notice the OP is based in Geelong. Next week I am staying in Geelong and Apollo bay and I'm bringing my mtb. I would really appreciate it if you could let me know where some of the XC tracks you are riding are. I am already aware of You Yangs and Forrest, which I am keen to check out.

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